A Cook County intern presented a resolution to the Board of Commissioners honoring the Cook County Public Defender's Office and summarized the office’s community programs, funding sources and staffing challenges during the meeting.

Tyquan Phillips, introduced by Commissioner Donna Miller as a 2025 McFadden intern, read the resolution text to the board and cited the Sixth Amendment as the constitutional basis for the public defender role. The presentation listed several community programs run or supported by the office, including the Know Your Rights campaign, Dialogue with the Community, the Law Student Volunteer and Leadership Program, and the Rosslyn Defense Center, described as a neighborhood‑based legal access point.

Phillips’ text included several quantitative details about resources and workloads: it states the public defender system’s majority funding comes from county and state sources, “approximately $110,000,000 annually”; that public defenders’ pay is lower than private‑sector counterparts (newcomers approximately 11.7% less, top earners around 43.7% less); and that average attorney caseloads often exceed national standards — the prepared text cites “some experiencing burnout with approximately 150 felonies and 400 misdemeanor cases per year per attorney, with some reporting upwards of 2,000 misdemeanor cases.” The presenter also cited a figure saying that limited attorney time correlates with a high rate of guilty pleas: “there is an 86% chance that a case will result in a guilty plea” where client contact is limited (text as presented).

The resolution commends the office for its community engagement and asks the county board to honor the office for “dedication to justice and the innovative community‑based programs” described in the presentation. The transcript captures Phillips’ prepared remarks and the presentation of resolution 253476; it does not record a board vote or implementation instructions for the funding or staffing items discussed.

Discussion type: formal presentation of a commemorative resolution and a summary of programmatic and funding challenges. Direction/assignment: none recorded. Formal action: resolution presented; no vote recorded in the available transcript.

Ending: The intern’s presentation foregrounded community‑based defense work and cited funding and caseload pressures; the board’s next steps on any policy or budget response are not recorded in the transcript.